I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hammocks and, more specifically, to rope sling hammocks provided with four points of connection to a supporting frame.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Perhaps one of the most common forms of hammocks is the rope sling hammock. The rope sling hammock is made up of intermeshed rope, usually cotton cords, connected to a pair of spreader bars at each end of the hammock bed. The ropes also interconnect to a chain at each end of the bed with each chain extending to a connection element, such as a hook, on a hammock stand to thus provide two points of connection between the bed and stand.
While these traditional 2-point hammocks are widely used and enjoyed, various efforts have been attempted over the years to improve the utility of such hammocks. One particular problem with the traditional two-point hammock construction is that the supporting stand must be very long to accommodate the rope sling bed therebetween with enough tension to desirably support an individual in the hammock bed. One solution has been to provide four points of connection rather than two between the bed and the stand. In a typical four point connection system, each end of the hammock bed is to be connected directly to the stand and so the stand can be shortened to match the length of the bed. Where canvas beds were used, the ends of the beds could be sewn around the stand support bars. That type of arrangement is not readily applicable to rope sling hammocks since the ropes are connected with a spreader bar to support them.
To utilize four point connection with rope slings, therefore, further hardware was necessary to connect the spreader bars to the stand. To this end, it was proposed to provide a pair of spaced-apart hooks on each spreader bar to connect directly to a mating pair of hooks at each end of the stand. The resulting four-point connection still allowed for a smaller length stand than conventional rope sling hammocks. But these four-point hammocks suffered from the drawback that the bed was not readily adjustable relative to the stand. Some amount of adjustability is desirable because rope slings have a tendency to stretch and sag. A solution was to add a pair of chains between the hooks at one end only of the bed. In that way, a four-point connection was maintained with a somewhat shorter length stand (as compared to traditional two-point stands) but which allowed for a limited range of adjustments to the hammock bed such as for tension and the like.
There has also been proposed to add chains between the hooks at both ends of the hammock bed to simulate two-point connections with the chains at each end angled together from the spreader bar to the stand. In other words, the spacing between the chains at the spreader bar is quite a bit larger than the spacing of the chains at the stand. While provision of four chains in this manner may provide a greater range of adjustability to the bed, a significant amount of sway characteristic of the traditional two-point hammocks is also introduced along with possible sacrifices in the length of the hammock stand.